In worst of times we can still hope for the best

US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US 7 Jan, 2025. Some US allies' strong responses to the controversial points of view US president-elect Donald Trump made public in a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Tuesday speak volumes of their deep concerns over the changes that will result from Trump acting as he said he will in his second term. Less than two weeks before his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, Trump took advantage of the wide-ranging news conference following Congress certifying his victory in the 2024 presidential election to declare "I am back". As well as railing against the Joe Biden administration's policies in different fields, particularly energy, and calling himself already the driving force behind the Gaza hostage talks, Trump continued to hold to the tough line on Canada he had revealed before, citing illegal immigrants and drug abuse in the US as excuses to threaten to impose "substantial" tariffs on Canada. As Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times last month concluding his 25-year service for the newspaper as an opinion columnist, "We may never recover the kind of faith in our leaders — belief that people in power generally tell the truth and know what they're doing — that we used to have.